Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Squash All up in Here.

Kim gifted me with a truckload of squash last week, all harvested from her family's garden. I decided to tackle the pie pumpkin and spaghetti squash today, but I'm leaving the behemoth hubbard for another day. I can barely carry it without help, and I'll be lucky if it doesn't strangle me in my dreams.

I will eat the roasty smoky seeds.

Both squashes were full of plump seeds today, so I decided to roast them together into a smoky-snacky treat.

Roasted Squash Seeds What You Need:

Cleaned, washed and drained squash seeds

olive oil

smoked salt

chipotle chili powder

liquid smoke

maple syrup

What You Do: I eyeball this, depending on how many seeds I've harvested.

Preheat the oven to 425F (I usually roast the seeds after the squash comes out of the oven, and it's still hot).

Toss the seeds in just enough olive oil to coat, then sprinkle with smoked salt, a pinch or so of chili powder, a fat drop of liquid smoke and a light drizzle of maple syrup.

Pour onto a baking sheet and pop in the oven.

Stir often! At first the seeds will be wet, but as the water evaporates off, the seeds will start to caramelize and stick to each other and the sheet. Watch them carefully, they will start to pop and brown quickly.

Try a few, and when they're crunchy and done to your liking take them and quickly transfer to a bowl or plate. While hot and sticky, I usually toss mine with a little more salt, but season to taste and munch!

Poor pumpkin is the lonely step child around here.

It's not finalized or anything, but I think I'll either make a pie with the pumpkin (for Dazee--I hate pumpkin pie!) or turn it into pumpkin cheezecake squares. I shall eat some of the spaghetti squash for dinner along with black beans and scramble leftovers, and the rest will be donated to kitchen science experiments.

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